CONTER-LOUIS

A  PEARL  HARBOR  SURVIVOR’S  STORY

Louis Anthony Conter was born on September 13, 1921, in Ojibwa, Wisconsin.  He enlisted in the Navy in November 1939 and following recruit training at Naval Training Center, San Diego, he was assigned to the battleship USS Arizona in January 1940.  In late 1941 his request to be considered for flight training was approved but before he received orders to report for pilot training, the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941 against the fleet at Pearl Harbor occurred.  On this morning Conter was a Quartermaster Third Class standing watch on the Arizona’s bridge when the attack commenced.  He participated in preparations to prepare the ship to get underway but about ten minutes after the attack commenced, a bomb detonated in a bow magazine causing a huge explosion, massive damage, numerous casualties and set fire to the ship and the surrounding sea.  Conter was knocked to the deck by the explosion but he quickly recovered and was soon helping to dowse the flames covering shipmates and keeping others from jumping overboard into the fire-filled waters.  As Arizona settled to the bottom, he soon found himself standing in knee deep water on the ship’s deck where he was assisting with firefighting and rescue efforts.  After the abandon ship order, Conter went into a lifeboat, pulling sailors from the water as they paddled to shore.  When the second wave of attacking planes hit, he fought from a boat, trying to pick off planes with machine guns and rifles.  After the attack, he spent ten-days assisting to put out fires and retrieving bodies.

Orders for pilot training were eventually updated and in November 1942, Conter graduated from pilot training at Pensacola, Florida.  He was trained as a PBY Catalina flying boat pilot and first assigned to Patrol Squadron Eleven (VP-11).  Planes of the squadron were known as Black Cats and wreaked havoc against the Japanese at they attacked airfields and ships, carried torpedoes, spotted naval gunfire during night-time bombardment raids, and searched for enemy ships.  During the war, Conter was reportedly shot down twice.  On one occasion he was in shark-infested waters of the South Pacific and helped fend off attacking sharks by punching them on the nose.  Another PBY saw the plight of Conter and his companions, dropped them a life raft and they were able to paddle to a nearby shore and awaited rescue which occurred about 24-hours later.  During another mission, Conter and his squadron reportedly rescued 219 Australian Coast Watchers from behind Japanese lines in New Guinea.

In 1954, Conter created the Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape program which came out of the practical experiences he received in the shark-infested and enemy-infested waters of the South Pacific.  He continued to serve as a Naval Aviator until retiring from the Navy in December 1967 with the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)